Corpse Party:

One Choice

Disclaimer:I do not own any Corpse Party related properties. It's the property of its creators. This is a fan work created to celebrate the opus. It is not intended to infringe on any copyrights.

Summery: One choice. One different choice can lead to all sorts of possibilities. What if one choice saves the life of a friend? On Shot.

Corpse Party: One Choice

Naomi stumbled out of the infirmary as quickly as her one good leg and hurt ankle would bear the rest of her. She slammed into the wall opposite of the door. She was shaking, sweaty, and wheezing for breath. She clutched her throat. There was something blocking her windpipe. She looked back at the open door of the infirmary. That black figure, though she could not see a face, was looking out into the hall. More importantly, she could feel its stare on her. While she tried resting in one of the beds in that room, it came and had attacked her.

She coughed and gagged, feeling sick from the black stuff that it had tried to invade her body with. For an instant, she had ceased to be able to breathe when it tried to force that black hair-like mist into her mouth, nose, and even her ears! Then she managed to get away from it and fled the room altogether! Now out in the hall she pushed herself away from the wall and managed to shuffled a few paces before throwing her head back and with it her entire body. Then she doubled over and began puking everything in her stomach out onto the floor at her feet. Even with the contents of her belly emptied, she continued to gasp for breath.

"I'll kill you."

Naomi glanced the black figure's way fearfully. Had that inhuman voice come from it? It had to have.

With a stunted, moaning little cry, the teen hobbled away down the hall. She looked over her shoulder several times, but the black entity did not follow her. Though she wasn't going to trust that it wouldn't and knew she had to get away from it. As it was, she had just escaped death and she knew it. As she went, she tried to put the jumbled mess that were her thoughts into their prepare place. Just what was that thing in the infirmary?! She no idea what was happening, or what this strange place was that she and Seiko had woken up in.

Naomi clutched her stomach tightly. It felt like her insides were turned upside down.

"There's something wrong with my stomach! Something wrong with my intestines!" she thought frantically.

Her legs ceased proper walking motion and she nearly tripped over them. Her body felt like a boneless lump. She heaved, feeling sick again, but this time, she held it back not wanting to throw up a second time. The bile in her mouth was bad enough already. Her teeth began chattering uncontrollably.

"Why did you leave me alone, Seiko?" was the only thought she could form. "Even though I said I'd help you look for Yuka! Why did you go off on your own?! Was it because you thought I'd hold you back?! That I'd get in your way?!"

She heard pounding footsteps approaching from the hall just in front of her. She turned to face whoever was coming for her apprehensively. When the figure revealed herself out of the dark, Naomi couldn't have been more relieved. It was Seiko! To Naomi right now, the sight of her friend coming to her aid was like the fresh water of an oasis to one stranded in the desert.

Seiko wore an expression of concern on her face. She'd heard Naomi screaming and hacking in the halls and promptly came back from her errand.

"Naomi! What happened? Are you alright?!" Seiko cried.

"Seiko…"

Naomi quickly told her what happened, stopping only to cough and choke occasionally. A look of utter remorse and guilt crossed her friends' features and Seiko looked down at the floor. She clutched her hand to her chest.

"Something like that happened to you?" Seiko asked solemnly.

She looked back up.

"I'm sorry for leaving you alone! Were you okay?!" she cried passionately.

By now, Naomi began to settle down a bit and the trembling had stopped. Seiko's present was putting her at ease, but it was that that turned her fear into anger. Logic and reason fought a losing battle. Though Naomi had initially wanted to just hug her friend tightly and just cry and cry, something else entirely happened.

"YOU LEFT ME BEHIND! I was so scared!" Naomi screamed.

Seiko took a step back from the overwhelming display.

"…I'm sorry! I am so, so sorry!" she managed to say in reply.

Seiko smiled weakly and held out her hand.

"Let's just go find the exit together, okay?" she offered, wanting to get Naomi away from there.

But Naomi slapped her hand away.

"No way!" she snapped, making Seiko wince.

Large tear drops began to cascade down Naomi's face. The anger was red hot now. She knew that getting angry wouldn't change anything and that Seiko had done nothing wrong, but she was beyond caring right now. So like a spoiled child, and despite everything that she knew for fact and every promise to herself and others, she continued. The words just began to spew forth like a poison being injected from a snake bite.

"Just leave me alone! There's probably no way to get out of her, anyway! We'll be lost here forever! I'll be a nuisance to my mother! This is the worst thing that can ever happen!"

Naomi coughed again, the lump in her throat being the only thing that interrupted her tirade. Seiko looked both scared and saddened for her, and took this opportunity to talk.

"Naomi, don't say like that. Everything will be okay."

"But it's true, isn't it?! She'll keep looking for me forever unless I get back home even though she has work to do! I'll being bringing her down…! I'll be getting in her way! This'll completely ruin her life if I don't get home safely! There's no way anyone will ever find me in a place like this! She'll be wasting her time! I'll be wasting her time!"

A stern, piercing glare crossed Seiko's face. It made Naomi stop dead in her ramblings. She was caught in whatever power the stare held, helpless before it. Then her friend did something else unexpected. Her hand shot up. Naomi felt a sharp sting as the slap connected hard enough to turn her head to the side. Shocked, Naomi stood there motionless and staring blankly at the wall. Seiko stared down at her hand just as surprised.

Then as one, both girls looked back to each other. Whatever shadow had infested the air fled. Clarity flooded Naomi's mind for the first time since she escaped the shadow fiend in the infirmary. Her lip trembled and a new fall of tears rolled down her cheeks. Her entire body began to shake again and she began crying. She fell onto her knees and grabbed Seiko around the waist.

Seiko let out a surprised 'oof!' as she yanked in close. Naomi buried her face in her stomach, gripping her tightly all the while. Seiko sighed in relief that Naomi was letting it out in a much healthier manner than before. She sunk to her knees as well. Naomi's face was now in her chest.

Smiling, she wrapped her arms around Naomi's neck and looked down at the sobbing girl, smiling. She spoke gently to Naomi, telling her to let it out all out and that it was okay. Eventually, Naomi's hiccups and wails stopped. She dislodged herself from Seiko's embrace, wiping her eyes.

"Oh God, look at me," Naomi muttered.

She looked at Seiko with red eyes.

"I'm sorry. Oh, I've made a mess of your uniform," she said.

"Hey, don't sweat it! You had a bad experience! Now, how about we get out of here before we have anymore, okay?" Seiko asked.

She grabbed Naomi by the arms stood up, pulling the other girl up with her. Naomi still looked sad and ashamed.

"Seiko, I really am sorry. I…if you didn't stop me just now, I don't know what I would have said…"

"Then I guess it's a good thing you have me around, eh? Now get dat ass moving! We're going to find Mochida and the others!"

Naomi gasped, suddenly remembering something.

"Oh, yeah, did you find any sign of Yuka?" Naomi asked.

Seiko shook her head.

"No. I don't where she is, but she can't be that far off."

Seiko looked at Naomi fondly and held out a hand to her.

"Now come on. We have a lost little girl to find."

Naomi smiled back before taking her hand.

"Yes, let's!"

A/N: Annnnd, the end. For now, anyway. This was just a little something I felt like getting off my chest since I didn't see any other Corpse Party fanfics exploring the possibilities of "what if dead characters survived!" I hope you like it. Maybe someday I'll compound on this little one shot, but for now, I have other projects that need writing.

And yeah, I know that the decision to change things should have been given to Naomi, but looking at the scene, there was no way that was happening. If anyone was going to make it play out differently, it was Seiko.